


He'll Do His Duty

by ByrantFrost



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Cat is worried about her son, M/M, Ned is queer, Ned wants Robb to have what he never did, Robb is queer, this is more about ned than it is Robb and the OMC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:15:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23697595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ByrantFrost/pseuds/ByrantFrost
Summary: Ned notices it first. Robb smiles just as sweet to the comely boy who saddled his horse as he does to the pretty girl who served him dinner.“He will do his duty.” Ned promises her.“How can you know that?"“He is my son, he will do his duty. I did.”
Relationships: Robb Stark/OMC
Kudos: 22





	He'll Do His Duty

**Author's Note:**

> Queer Ned and queer Robb are my favorite things in the world. So here's queer Ned caught between wishing for his son's happiness and knowing that eventually practicality must win out. If people like this, I would love to write more

Ned notices it first. Robb smiles just as sweet to the comely boy who saddled his horse as he does to the pretty girl who served him dinner. It’s not a big deal, Ned tells himself while he watches Robb lay a hand on the boy’s upper arm. He’ll just make sure to remind his son that every man has a duty to his wife, and that one day, Robb will have a wife; she'll be the lady of Winterfell. They’ll need sons, as many as Robb can give her. Daughters too, he’ll tell his son.  _ Nothing will bring you joy like your daughters will _ .

* * *

Cat sees Robb at the gate of the Godswood, head bent, whispering to Mikken’s apprentice before they disappear into the Godswood. When She tells him Ned knows he does not sound upset. “He’s a boy, he’ll grow out of it.” Ned says. He knows it’s not true, but how would he tell his wife that? Likely Robb and this boy will soon grow tired of their whispering and sneaking. It’s not going to be a problem. Still Ned starts thinking about a wife for his boy,  _ is he so old? _ But winter is ever coming. Better to start too early than too late. 

* * *

Ned watches from the wall, hidden out of sight, as his son pulls the apprentice boy into the training yard. There’s a bit of scuffling, their hands are all over each other as Robb manages to pull the boy into the yard. The boy was bigger than Robb, and Ned knows he  _ let _ Robb pull him to the middle of the training yard. Robb was good with a sword but he did not have the strength of a blacksmith, nor a black smith's apprentice. 

“I’m no swordsman, my lord.” but Robb is all smiles holding a wooden sword to the boy. The other boy too is smiling, though he is trying to hid it. Trying to play the part of an apprentice boy.  


“And I’m not your lord yet, come on.” The boy looks embarrassed, and Ned wonders if Robb understands the power he has. How could the boy say no to Winterfell’s heir, Lord or no? 

“I’m just a smith’s ‘prentice,” He says, taking the sword, Ned didn’t know his son’s smile could grow wider. Robb’s eyes shine so bright Ned can see it from where he stands. 

“And one day you’ll be my smith.” He says it like he’s said it a million times. The boy's cheeks are still red, but Ned doesn’t think he seems quite as embarrassed. He smiles at Robb, a smile Ned knows was only for Robb to see. He suddenly feels like an intruder. 

“I think my smith ought to know what to do with the swords he makes me don’t you?” Ned leaves Robb to teach Mikken’s apprentice how to hold a sword, the way Robb stood behind the boy with his arms around him- some things demand privacy from a father’s prying eyes.

* * *

It’s a summer’s snow that sends Cat worrying again. The snow flakes are fat and wet as they come down, sticking wherever they land. 

He’s writing a letter to Ben. It might be time to send men to some holdfasts in the Gift. The Night’s Watch was getting too small the North would have to take measures to protect itself. He’s just finishing his letter when Cat pushes his door open. 

“Come look, Ned, please.” His wife sounds worried, he fears the worst for one of his children but which one? N _ ot Jon _ he knows if Cat is worried, but there are five others. She takes him to a window, looking out into the court yard, 

There are half built forts that his children have abandoned, but there in front of all the gods both old and new are his son and Mikken’s apprentice. Ned can hear their breathless laughter from where he is standing. They’re throwing snow, chasing each other around the yard, other until Robb catches the boy around the waist and they tumble to the ground. Robb’s wolf snapping at them playfully. The boy, big as a blacksmith already, falls on top of Robb. When the boy goes to move Robb stops him and Ned feel’s his heart in his throat.  _ Does he have the courage I lacked? _ Ned wonders, but turns around before he can find out. Some things demand privacy from a father’s prying eye. 

“You must speak to him.” Cat pleads and Ned nods turning her away from the window,  _ a mother’s prying eye as well _ Ned thinks wondering what she saw in the seconds Ned was not looking.  _ Or did she close her eyes to it too? _

* * *

Ned took turns inviting those who worked for him to dinner, wanting them to know they were important members of his household. He had forgotten he’d invited Mikken, being so worried about Robb, until the man was there in his best clothes. The rest of Ned’s family was there, all of them but Robb. They waited, Ned spoke to Mikken of his work, while his wife tried to keep his children from getting loud in anticipation of the meal. Eventually, Ned decided they must start dinner without his eldest son. They're through their first course before the doors open and there is Robb drenched in snow melt with his wolf by his heels. 

“I’m sorry I’m late I-” Robb doesn’t look sorry at all, Ned is ready to comment on it when he notices the boy next to Robb. 

“I was showing him the helm I'm working on My Lord. I’m sorry I kept Robb from dinner.” The boy at least looks sorry.

Robb starts towards the table, all grins, until he sees the boy still in the door. He huffs, still smiling, and turns back and grabs the boy’s wrist and tows him to the table. Again Ned realizes the boy is  _ letting _ Robb pull him around. But now that he’s close Ned can see the boy is more a man than Robb is, at least by two years. And he's  _ much _ bigger than Robb, more than he looked the few times Ned had seen them together. 

“I thought- I knew Mikken was eating with us and I thought, well, Calrin will be Winterfell’s smith one day so-” Ned offers the boy a seat at their table, but he can feel the anger and fear coming from his wife. He rests a hand on hers but knows Robb has doomed the boy, he will never be Winterfell’s smith.

* * *

Cat is furious after dinner and Ned wishes he could calm her down. Instead, he lets her tell him about how no one will take his son seriously until she runs out of things to say. Ned wonders how his son can be so blind, how he can think the rest of them are so blind. He all but held the boy’s hand on their way from the door to the table. The looks they gave each other at dinner- Ned is not furious like Cat, but he can not blame her for being so.

“He will do his duty.” Ned promises her. He knows it will do little for her anger, how could it? She did not know what Ned knew. She had not seen this all before, had not  _ lived _ this all before.

“How can you know that? He- He brought the boy to dinner. There in the training yard he-” Ned pulls his wife into his arms. He dare not look in her eyes after he says what he must say. 

“He is my son, he will do his duty. I did.” It does not surprise Ned when that does not quell his wife’s anger. She relaxes into the hug, but only because there is nothing more to be said. Her husband is the same kind of monster she feared her son was turning into. 

“I want him sent away. I don’t care where, but I do not want him around my son.” Ned agrees. If only Robb had not been so bold as to bring the boy to dinner, if only he had been more careful. But Robb will do his duty,  _ and he will learn to be more careful, _ Ned thinks, but that is not a bad thing either.

* * *

They send the boy to Riverrun to apprentice for Lord Holster’s smith. Riverrun’s smith was getting old, that much was true, but it did not make Ned feel much better about it. The first person Ned tells is Mikken, apologizing to the man for sending his apprentice away. 

“I was gonna tell you My Lord, but I did not know if it was my place.” Ned isn’t sure if it was Mikken’s place either, but it doesn’t matter, they weren't  _ why _ the boy was leaving, not the real reason at least. Ned would not spoil the boy’s reputation.  _ Besides, _ he’d told Catelyn, _ who in this castle does not know that he and Robb are friends? _ He doesn’t tell her that it would take a fool to not see what _kind_ of friends they had been. 

Ned doesn’t know if it was the gods looking down on him favorably or not that Mikken tells the boy before Ned can tell Robb. Was it better to have Robb hear it from the boy or from his father?  _ From the boy, _ Ned decides, _ if only Robb knows I did not mean to never tell him. _

“I want to go with him.” Robb says when he came to speak to Ned about it. “I want to ride south with him to see him off.” 

Ned knows Catelyn would never let him. Ned isn’t sure if he will take the matter to her. 

"He was my friend and you’re sending him away because, because-” Robb looks almost like he will cry. Ned can’t remember the last time he’d seen his eldest cry. 

“Because you must do your duty.” Ned finishes, trying not to sound unkind, but it only makes his son angry. 

“My duty to my wife? Did you marry me without telling me father?” Before Ned can reprimand his son for speaking out of turn, for speaking rudely, Robb is apologizing. He should still tell his son off, but he can not bring himself to do it. 

“I would like to go, please father I lo-” though Robb does not finish Ned can hear it.  _ I love him _ . He must send more men if he lets Robb go south, he would have to endure Cat’s anger for it, but he agrees anyway. He knows his father would not have done the same. He’s not sure his father would have let the boy live.

Robb is on his way out, his back to Ned, when he says, “I would have done my duty father, we always spoke of it. Calrin and me.  _ Winter is coming _ . We knew it could not last forever. No summer can. We just didn’t think Winter would come so soon.” 

* * *

Ned knew he ought to be in the courtyard seeing his son off. He knew Cat was down there, seething, though she would not show it. Instead, she was likely giving Robb messages to bring to those in Riverrun. He and Robb had said their goodbyes in the hall. Robb had been sullen for the few days it had taken to put together a party worthy of the hair of Winterfell off to visit his grandfather and uncle. It was a nice spin on the story despite Robb’s sullenness. No one remembered it was a trip that was meant to send the apprentice boy away, a trip with weak reasoning. Now it was a trip sending the grandson of Riviverrun home.  


Ned Stayed at his desk until he heard the party move out the East Gate. He watched the party move though wintertown and onto the Kingsroad. He watched as Robb and his horse took off like a shot, the horse that had just been beside him seemed to slow for just a moment before racing after Robb. He could almost hear Jory curse as he took to chase after them. Ned should have been angry at his son, but he could not bring himself to anger. 

_ Let him have the last of this summer  _ Ned thought returning to his desk to finish the letter to Lord Karstark asking about his daughter,  _ let him have this before he does his duty. _

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I know Alys Karstark might be Ned punching low. But I couldn't decide if Ned would actually wed Robb to Margaery (or if Ned would think Mace would say yes)


End file.
